Socialist Republic of Vietnam - Gold Star Order

[ThaiDave]

Hi All,

I am adding SRV pages to my website, and I had some questions from the SRV collectors out there :

1. I have come across several reproductions of this order.  Does anyone have any other different copy types, have the reported early copy with plain back (without branches), have any other "numbered" reverses or duplicates of the numbers I have seen (30, 31, 33), know who made any of these, or remember when they may have first seen any of these ? (a previous report in 2000 didn't seem to indicate copies yet, but by 2003 there were 2 known copies made by Vietnamese dealers).

2. Does anyone know what the gold-star like badge is in the attached picture ?  It was found in Vietnam perhaps in last 1990s. 

3. Has anyone ever seen actual or a picture of the design given in the 1959 US Army publication (see attached pic) ?

4. Does anyone have additional references for this order ?

The draft page is here: www.indochinamedals.com/srv/o-01_gold_star_order.html

Rgds

Dave